I really enjoyed the Native American museum, especially all the southwestern tribal cultures (I pretty much automatically associate Native Americans with cedar bark houses, totem poles and salmon). I especially loved the section of paintings by Fritz Scholder. This one is my favorite:
I love Native American culture. I don’t know about elsewhere, but back home there is a fairly big emphasis on it in education. The first 8 years of my schooling involved learning about local native tribes, hatching/releasing salmon eggs, having powwows every month, etc. From the Macaw tribe’s whaling pursuits to Native festivals and awareness, not to mention that most of our cities (Seattle, Chehalis, Puyallup, Yakima, etc) are named after Native tribes/people, Native culture is somewhat alive in Washington. That being said, they’re still most famous for bringing 80s one hit wonders to their casinos (Loverboy, anyone?) and being the best place to get 4th of July fireworks for cheap (the Muckleshoot reservation is my favorite).
As far as Columbus/Cortez goes, they screwed up. But they were products of their times, which doesn’t justify their actions, but at least allows you to understand their mindset a bit. Conquering was the norm, there wasn’t really an idea of a collective humanity. As we witness concepts of knowledge and justice molded over time, perhaps (and probably) hundreds of years from now people will be snickering at our models of the universe and how primitive we are.
5 comments:
Hey, Ahna or however you spell it right back at you.
The museum was pretty awesome, especially Scholder's interpretation of the "other" that he was a part of.
And Columbus and Cortes did screw up. But so did everyone else. And at the time, they probably didn't think they were screwing up.
The point of history is ya don't know all the stuff that happens until it happens (and by that point, you're probably dead).
And heck yes, soundtracks are the way to go.
Colors of the Hood, you know.
I agree with you jasmine. cortez was most definitely a product of his time. but even so, i think they should have known that they were screwing up. people can be caught up with doing what they think is right at the time, but part of doing what you think is right is thinking about the consequences.
I thought it was interesting that you said you automatically associate native Americans with cedar bark houses, totem poles and salmon. Coming from the southwest, or whatever you want to call the region, I tend to associate them with tepees, hunting buffalo, and Mesa Verde. It was definitely interesting to see other cultures represented, especially those of the pacific northwest and Canada and Alaska.
In Texas its the Comanches,their horses and plains that I think about.I think it is interesting how all the indigenous groups are often referred to together, because really their cultures and ways are extremely diverse. Geography is such an easy default means of categorizing things, it glosses over the defining differences.
I think that Columbus and Cortez were not justified in their actions, but what I was trying to do by playing the Savages song from Pocahontas in class was to emphasize how the Europeans did not think that the Native Americans were people. It is awful and we know better (obviously), but that makes this a bit more confusing. If someone does not think he/she is killing a person, does that mean he/she understands that there was a crime committed? This particular example does not really work because there were no crimes against humanities at that time. However, it is an interesting thought. I think that a crime is still committed if there is a law set up. And if there is not a law set up, then there needs to be an effort to get one into effect. Obviously if there is a mental issue, that needs to be taken into account. However, Columbus and Cortez were not mentally incapacitated, they just did not understand that people who did not look and act like them were still people.
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